August 2014

Michael Brown, 18, was shot and killed by Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson on Canfield Drive. Brown was unarmed. His body lay in the street for four hours. The killing triggered weeks of protests in Ferguson and nationally, militarized police responses, and a DOJ investigation that found Ferguson's police and courts operated as a system of racial extraction.

Following the killing of Michael Brown, Ferguson, Missouri erupted in sustained protests. Militarized police responses — armored vehicles, tear gas, rubber bullets — drew international condemnation. Organizers and activists converged from across the country. The uprising catalyzed a new generation of Black Lives Matter organizing and prompted the DOJ's landmark investigation into Ferguson's police department.

Michael Brown, 18, was shot and killed by Ferguson, MO officer Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014. Brown was unarmed. His body lay in the street for 4.5 hours in the August heat. Protests erupted in Ferguson; police responded with militarized equipment including MRAPs, targeting journalists. A grand jury declined to indict Wilson in November 2014. A DOJ civil rights investigation found the Ferguson Police Department operated as a revenue-generating operation, systematically targeting Black residents with fines and fees; 85% of stops were of Black residents in a 67% Black city. The Ferguson uprising accelerated the Black Lives Matter movement.

John Crawford III, 22, was shot and killed by Beavercreek, Ohio police in a Walmart while holding an unpackaged BB gun taken from a store shelf. A 911 caller, Ronald Ritchie, falsely reported Crawford as pointing a weapon at people. Surveillance video contradicted the officers' accounts. A grand jury declined to indict the officers. The DOJ declined to bring federal charges in 2015.

The police killing of Michael Brown sparks sustained protest and a national reckoning on policing.